Arsenal defeated Reading 1-0 at the Select Car Leasing Stadium on Sunday evening thanks to a first half goal from Stina Blackstenius. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match, the first three questions are from Arseblog News.
On Reading playing with a back four when they usually play with a three…
We saw them play with a four in the second half against Tottenham in the Conti Cup and they were happy with that performance. To be honest I didn’t think they would play with a four I thought they would play with a back five against us but when we saw the line-up we could see it was a four. But it’s no problem, we are mature enough as a team now to handle both situations so it’s fine.
On whether the second half became too transitional…
Yes and no, we also created some really, really big chances on the transitions that we get. Those opportunities were so big that it’s hard to say we should step on the ball because either we had really good counter attacks or we played through their pressure and got really good opportunities. If you stop at that moment, they leave players up so if we stop in that moment and play the ball back, we are immediately under pressure. I think we were right to try to kill off the game with the second goal but we didn’t score and then it becomes problematic. If we had scored a second I think they would have sat off more and we would have had more composure.
A clinical finish from @SBlackstenius 🔥
The @ArsenalWFC forward is lethal in front of goal!#BarclaysWSL pic.twitter.com/O1nRRJZngN
— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) October 16, 2022
On whether the experience of grinding out a 1-0 win in wet conditions at Ajax helped for this game…
The experience was, yes but it’s also a mentality, where it is really important to keep a clean sheet, where it’s really important to manage these situations. That’s important during a whole season, we stayed together and we deserved to win today.
On keeping a clean sheet without the two first choice central defenders…
All the players we play are individually great players but partnerships in football take time and because of the international break we only had two practices then we play. When you are restricted on time you always know that’s a factor. You have all this communication in defence and offence and you can’t take that for granted in football but i think we were very focused going out and working on it. I am always pleased with a clean sheet, I never take it for granted.
On managing football three times a week with Champions League football…
It was important to get more players playing than 11, we spoke about after the Ajax game we have a block now without much time for recovery and we need players to play in every game for us. This was a good opportunity to get some minutes into players and having more players ready. The players that came on in the second half also did very well and that was also very pleasing.
On playing Steph Catley at centre-half…
Tim asked me the question on Friday about what changes when you change both your centre-backs. Of course you change some of the passes, it would be crazy to say everyone makes the same passes as Leah Williamson, for example. You can’t say “that’s exactly what you have to do to play centre-back at Arsenal.”
If you compare Leah to Lotte, Leah Williamson is better at playing through the lines but Lotte has a longer kick for example. Those obvious things mean you play to your player’s strengths rather than being stuck and saying ‘this is always exactly the same patterns.’ The patterns we play always have to acknowledge the player’s strengths.
We had Steph on the left today and she will be very comfortable driving the ball forward on her left foot, she is a full-back so she does that a lot. So that also makes a lot of sense. It’s really important that we utilise players who can play in more than one position in a block like this, both depending on the opponent and players that we have available it is very pleasing for me to see Steph play here today, it gives us options.
1.Zinsberger; 26.Wienroither, 3.Wubben-Moy, 7.Catley, 15.McCabe (5.Beattie ‘82); 13.Walti (12.Maanum ‘65), 10.Little(c), 11.Miedema (8.Nobbs ‘65); 9.Mead, 19.Foord (17.Hurtig ‘65); 25.Blackstenius.
Apart from profligacy in front of goal and the nervy last 10 minutes I agree we were in control of this game. It will take time for Lotte and Steph to develop their partnership but it will come.
Jonas is always so calming in his comments.
Good result. CBs did well but weren’t really troubled. Going forward I thought we looked a bit flat, but that me projecting a very damp vibe from the stands💦
One – nil to the Arsenal seems a bit disappointing these days when we are used to four per game but three points is three points and if we get three points every game from now we win the title!
Why has Iwabuchi not had a minutes football this season?